Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 150:

In page 17, to delete lines 33 to 39, and in page 18, to delete lines 1 and 2 and substitute the following:

“Offences

22. (1) It shall be an offence--(a) to intentionally or recklessly end a pregnancy without the consent of the pregnant woman,

(b) for a person other than an appropriately qualified practitioner to perform a surgical medical procedure for the purposes of ending a pregnancy.(2) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (1) of this section--(a) no pregnant woman, or third party facilitating or assisting her, shall be held criminally liable for procuring or carrying out a medical procedure that leads to

the ending of a pregnancy, and

(b) no appropriately qualified practitioner shall be held criminally liable for carrying out a medical procedure that leads to the ending of a pregnancy.(3) A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable under indictment to a fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years, or both.

(4) A prosecution for an offence under this section may be brought only by or with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions.".

This is in respect of the 14 year jail sentence for a woman or someone who assists a woman in acquiring abortion in this country outside the structure of this Bill. This replaces the 1861 Act, which is one of the most draconian Acts left in Europe, and even outside of Europe because most of Britain's former countries are outside Europe. For example, India got rid of this Act in the 1960s, as did a raft other countries.

This is the section of the 1861 Act which provides the chilling factor that the European Court of Human Rights stated should be removed. It should not be in any right minded society. The Government has a great opportunity to remove the 1861 Act completely, but instead it is replacing it with a 14 year jail sentence. If a young woman took an abortion pill, found herself in difficulty after taking that pill, had to attend an accident and emergency department, was asked if she took an abortion pill and answered in the affirmative, could her case be brought before the Director of Public Prosecutions and an action taken against her? It is not a crime as the abortion pill can only be taken up to nine weeks.

We had the opportunity to get rid of that Act completely. There is a hypocrisy in this country where we threaten to jail women if they procure an abortion here, but we do not mind giving them information and they can travel to Britain and do the exact same thing. If it is a crime here, why are we giving information to women to travel to have an abortion in Britain? The hypocrisy of it is amazing. People talk to me about the unborn and repugnancy. I find this one of the most repugnant aspects of this Bill.

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